The ground quaked and mud splashed as the boulders from the dead golem crashed against the ground.

  A dream, Veronica thought. The sight was impossible. In her sixty years as an ether hunter, never had she witnessed something like this. She’d fought a golem like that once in her life. Back then, sixteen hunting companies had been present, working together for over a week to save the third level from total collapse.

  This golem was destroyed in less than a minute.

  The woman in the black and purple raincoat continued slashing. Her white heavenly greatsword cut through mud monsters as if they were nothing. She stood solo by the front lines, yet she had no trouble holding back the onslaught of monsters that drove three hunting companies to despair.

  She wasn't just holding it back. She was regaining control. Each shockwave of her greatsword demolished a wave of monsters.

  Veronica blinked, yet the scene in front of her did not change. Her usual composure was gone. She realized she must have looked like a total weakling. Yet, she could not stop gaping.

  Whose sword is that? she whispered in her head.

  Her spirit blinked a negative answer. It did not know.

  No, that wasn’t what the spirit said. The woman’s blade wasn’t a spirit blade at all.

  A powerful gush of ether grabbed the woman’s hair, and for a moment, Veronica saw her features from the side. A young girl. Veronica knew her. She’d seen her before.

  No way, Veronica thought. She stumbled back, her feet losing their strength, when she realized the identity of the girl in front of her.

  Vivian Runeblessed.

  “That’s a runesword…” she said out loud.

  “Its name is Dawnpour,” said the girl in the pink raincoat. “Crafted by Vivian’s grandpa.”

  Veronica realized she was still holding the girl’s hand. She wasn’t sure who it was, though she’d seen the face with the Sylva Bloods.

  She looked around herself. The scene only became more unbelievable. Commands were being shouted in a foreign language. Her spirit translated them. “The barrel!” one shouted.

  Demons. Every figure in a grey raincoat was a demon. They were assembling something on top of a platform. Something that looked like a weapon. Everyone moved swiftly with practice, not one bit of fear showing in their features.

  Are they allies? Veronica thought.

  Probably not. But the demons had saved her. She’d been saved by real demons. A fact, which made her utterly confused. She found herself unable to decide anything at all.

  A flicker came from the middle of the storm, and Veronica’s head snapped in the direction. “It’s not over!” she said. Her voice wasn’t commanding as it usually was. More so, her tone was panicked. “The wyvern! It’ll kill us all!”

  The storm was finally calming down, all of its ether having found the wyvern. Golden glowing eyes opened within. Veronica could vaguely make out the shape of a large snout beneath the mist, as well as the golden shine of its brilliant scales.

  When she looked into her sixth sense, the feeling nearly made her puke.

  The golem had been nothing—a mere afterthought before the storm’s true reanimation. Insurmountable amounts of ether welled within. And it wasn’t just the wyvern. Something sat astride its back. A rider, one with an aura of pure darkness and deep black eyes.

  “The surface is doomed…” Veronica said weakly. No matter how powerful Vivian’s new runeswords, they could not defeat this. “We need to retre—”

  “Patryn, the strong missiles!” Vivian ordered, her voice resonating like cannonfire.

  “Yes!” the demons said, and loaded the giant weapon behind her.

  The wyvern was still at least four hundred feet in the distance. It took flight, and the true majesty of its appearance was revealed. It didn’t look like a monster. The golden scales had retained their artistic shape remarkably well. Ether flowed within each scale, but the gold itself looked more like armor.

  The rider atop—that thing was a pure monster, the worst Veronica had ever seen. Its entire presence was ethereal, made mostly of void ether with an aura that rivaled two exalted ascension skills at once.

  “Aim!” Vivian Runeblessed called, pointing her runesword at the flying wyvern. Fire was forming within its mouth as it flapped its wings toward their position.

  That fire alone would kill them. No coating of ether could protect them from something like that.

  “We need to run,” Veronica said, forcing command into her voice. “Everyone, retre—”

  “Fire!”

  Vivian’s voice far overpowered her, and the explosive force that followed from the weapon took the last remaining life out of Veronica. Mud splashed underneath the weapon as the heavy recoil pushed it to the ground. A missile must have fired, but Veronica merely felt a sonic boom before the target had already been pierced.

  A gaping hole pierced the golden wyvern. A clear sky showed itself above it in the shape of a circle as the missile pushed clouds out of its way.

  The wyvern began falling, dead immediately, crashing against the ground a hundred feet from Vivian Runeblessed.

  The girl stepped forward, her heavenly white blade in hand, facing the wyvern’s rider. The godslayer sheathed a blade of its own, facing Vivian.

  She can’t win. Nobody can duel that thing.

  Except, Vivian’s aura grew.

  An ascension skill activated. An exalted skill. Suddenly, the purple of her raincoat was the most dominant color of the battlefield. And it didn’t stop there. Vivian’s form became black—even darker than the godslayer’s.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  She pounced forth, runesword in hand, her aura now far overpowering the godslayer.

  Veronica couldn’t keep up. The duel moved so fast, Halo Of Blades could have only kept up if she slashed wildly and hoped for a lucky hit. Each clash of their swords resounded across the field with the volume of the storm itself.

  Veronica had no idea what was happening.

  But it seemed Vivian Runeblessed was winning.

  ***

  With the godslayer knocked off of its footing, Vivi cast down her sword to crush its head in.

  The godslayer was a weak imitation. A catalyst, perhaps, but still nothing compared to what protected the behemoth’s heart. Vivi considered herself lucky. She cut off the flow of void ether without problems, and called off her ascension skills. She didn’t feel any lasting damage.

  The battlefield fell silent. Color, or rather, the grey tint of the surface, slowly returned to the air. Drizzling rainfall deemed Vivi victorious, followed by a cheer in the distance.

  The lone cheer spread, and soon, all around her, hunters rejoiced amongst their fallen friends. The type of desperate cheer of survival. Vivi spotted the green uniforms of the Swordblessed, and the Lifeweavers, of course. Even members of the Sylva Bloods rejoiced.

  “Quickly, pick up the loot,” Lucius said. “Before we’re questioned.”

  Vivi turned to the godlayer's corpse. It had dropped nothing, except just over a thousand void wisps and thirty thousand regular wisps.

  The wyvern’s corpse had turned to a clump of gold and locium. Its sizzle of collectible ether was much stronger. A skill wisp floated within.

  Looks like just a rare skill, Vivi thought, but she picked it up nonetheless. Before that, she had to slot one of her existing skills temporarily into a container for the new one to fit. She asked Lucius to read its details.

  “It’s Momentum Strike,” Lucius said, sounding disinterested. “An okay skill, I guess. It’s just an upgrade of Momentum Leap. It enhances your blade during the leap for a slash.”

  That would probably be useless, considering Dawnpour was already the strongest sword in the world. Weapon enhancement skills would merely add scratches to utter destruction.

  “Shame,” Lucius said. “This could have dropped an exalted skill. I’m guessing there aren’t very many available right now. Someone needs to die before we can collect theirs.” He smirked. “Or we could kidnap Veronica underground and—”

  No, Vivi thought, though that seemed to be a joke.

  The cheers had calmed, and everyone merely stared at her, probably trying to figure out who she was. And those who had figured out her identity were probably trying to decide whether she was an enemy or not.

  Vivi lifted Dawnpour up high.

  The cheers came back. Vivi smiled. This should work as building a reputation, right?

  “We can make an ally out of Veronica, at least,” Lucius said.

  Vivi began making her way back to the Lifeweavers’ position. She spotted Veronica right away. The woman was an amusing sight. Next to Essi, the woman looked nothing like the arrogant leader of the Lifeweavers Vivi remembered. She seemed much older, wrinkles forming from the shock as her features were frozen open.

  “It seems…” Veronica said weakly as Vivi approached, “that I must apologise.”

  Her dress and hair were muddy from the back, where she’d fallen. Her makeup was smudged, probably from the rain, but it could have been tears.

  Vivi thought of what to say. Veronica was influential, and that influence could be used to get Essi out of trouble. Really, Vivi didn’t want much more than that.

  I could start playing hero, Vivi thought. And it seemed the humans did need a hero. It was scary to think that if Vivi wasn’t here, thousands of people could have died to the wyvern and its rider, before a competent group of hunters was finally called.

  Vivi was just opening her mouth, when another grinning man arrived on the scene. He was carried by a palanquin, and through its windows, Vivi immediately spotted the face of someone who believed himself to be important enough not to step on mud. The demons’ presence didn’t seem to faze him, though that was probably because he didn’t look in their direction. In their grey raincoats, everyone’s figures were easy to ignore.

  A platform was placed for him, and he stepped out. “Well, this is a surprise!” he said. “A new powerful hunter. Magnificent. What wonderful machinery. Though, I must admit, this performance was deadlier than what I had expected, Veronica.” A slight frown appeared with the last sentence.

  Vivi tilted her head. “Who might you be?”

  His brow twitched. “Has my new outfit blinded you, Miss Hunter? No matter, it will be forgiven. I thank you for your work.”

  “That’s Helegar,” Lucius said. “The sub-sovereign of the north canton.”

  A flash of anger flowed through Vivi. Her head perked up. This man, he was evil. The epiphany of greed. It hadn’t taken much research to learn Helegar was the one responsible for this disaster. He refused all the advice of expert hunters, and decided to play for profit instead.

  “As per the deal, I will buy all skills from you at half of the market price,” he explained. “I will receive thirty percent of the ether earned.”

  He dared speak sternly, as if expecting to command Vivi.

  This is the man whose favor we’re trying to gain, Vivi thought. This locium-clad incompetent idiot… He’s the one whose city we saved. And in his city, we will be heroes.

  “Well?” the sub-sovereign asked. “The skills, girl. Did it drop an exalted skill?”

  Vivi took a deep breath. “Are you the one who built that wyvern?” she asked.

  “I am indeed,” he said proudly. “The most beautiful monster I’ve ever seen.”

  Vivi wore a wide scowl and stepped forward. “You’re the one who ordered no ether sticks to be used? You purposefully made the storm as dangerous as possible?”

  Helegar was taken aback, realizing that Vivi wasn’t on his side at all.

  “Do you care at all for your city?” Vivi asked with genuine anger in her voice. “A red storm broke outside your walls!”

  The sub-sovereign glanced at his guards, lost for words and looking for an escape. His guards stepped back alongside him.

  “If not for me saving your ridiculous operation,” Vivi said, fist clenched, “your city would have been destroyed! You would have been responsible for letting a wyvern loose on the surface!”

  “Are you aware of who you are talking to, young woman?” Helegar said through gritted teeth.

  “I’m talking to an incompetent, greedy fool!”

  A hand blocked Vivi’s way as she stepped forward. It was Veronica Lifeweaver—and she wasn’t frowning alongside Vivi. Rather, the woman’s eyes were panicked. Vivi could read the look in her eyes. Veronica desperately told Vivi to stop.

  Lucius seemed to share the sentiment. He hid within Vivi’s core, fearfully cautious about what Vivi would say next.

  Vivi wanted to arrest him. If she gave the order, Lortel would have knocked him out, and he’d be in the cuffs he deserved. But the aftermath would be far too problematic. There probably wouldn’t be many hunters who supported Vivi’s decision.

  “Helegar,” Vivi said sternly. “I offer you a deal.”

  He met her eyes, and her mood must have radiated well through her aura, as he didn’t argue back.

  “You will not take the skills or ether from this storm,” Vivi said. “You failed to contain it. I was never a part of your deal, and the hunters you would have hired would have died.”

  Hell, hunters had died. Around them, more than one was knelt down in the mud mourning for their fallen friends.

  “Your life will be spared, and I won’t call for an exile,” Vivi said. “Your incompetence deserves punishment. Only your connection to Ythar can save you from this catastrophe.”

  The sub-sovereign clearly wanted to use his authority against Vivi, but his survival instinct overpowered that. He looked pathetic—like any ordinary human that had commanded an army to death. Was he really connected to a god in any way at all?

  “I don’t expect credit for saving you,” Vivi said. “I don’t want to make an enemy out of you. But I hope you understand how destructive this storm would have been if not for my assistance.”

  Helegar bit his lip. “I see. It seems my choice of hunters was inadequate for the situation.”

  Your preparations nearly destroyed the city, Helegar, Vivi thought, still wanting to arrest him. But for her own goals, letting him go was for the best. For the safety of Essi’s family. She’d already upset him more than she would have liked.

  Another part of her said, This is wrong. This greed has to stop. Ranewal deserves a better leader.

  Perhaps it was just a better god that humanity required.

  “Veronica,” Vivi said. “Let’s clean up. And I’d like to ask you for some help.”

  “A favor is the least I can offer for saving my life,” Veronica said.

  “It’s not a favor, per se, but an offer for alliance,” Vivi said. “Today, I plan on turning Runeblessed into a real hunting company.”